NEW DELHI: The Railway Board has asked the general managers of zones and all production units to freeze creation of new posts except for safety works till further order. It has also asked them to surrender 50% of the existing vacancies, in other than safety categories.
In its letter issued on November 24, the Railway Board has instructed the GMs to review the posts created in the last two years and where the recruitment has not been done against these posts, they can review these for surrendering.
Sources said this is being done for two reasons. First, there is a need for rationalisation of the workforce and second, to tide over the tight fiscal condition.
The Board had issued a similar letter in July asking the zones to start the exercise and to give a compliance report by July 10. Top railway officials had claimed that the move was for “rightsizing and not downsizing” and the posts that would be surrendered were created in the past two years and are yet to be filled.
A railway ministry spokesperson said the rationalization of vacancies and expenditure management is an important exercise which every organization does including those in Government of India. “This internal note should be seen in that context only. It may be noted that Indian Railways is in the process of conducting examination for selection for a record number of vacancies numbering almost 1.4 lakhs. The selection process is starting from December 15, 2020 in which more than 2.4 crore candidates are expected to participate,” he said.
The official added that Indian Railways is also completing the training and joining of ALPs in a phased manner. This is also expected to be completed by August, 2021.